An accounting period is the period for which an accounting entity prepares its financial statements. An accounting period usually lasts one year (that is, 12 consecutive calendar months). Only in exceptional cases can it be shorter (for example, when the accounting entity ceases to exist) or longer (this situation may occur when changing the accounting period from a calendar year to a business year, also known as a fiscal year).
Accounting periods are continuous in time, meaning that each subsequent accounting period must directly follow the previous one. The accounting period code can be used as a prefix or postfix in number series for documents where the number serves as a variable symbol.
The following types of accounting periods are used:
Calendar accounting period: identical to the calendar year (starts on January 1 and ends on December 31),
Fiscal accounting period: does not always have to start on January 1 and has a fixed length of 12 months.
When you create a new company, a default accounting period is created automatically, identical to the current calendar year. In the list of accounting periods, you can edit this period or create a new one.
Creating a new accounting period or editing an existing one
You can create a new accounting period or change an existing one in Settings › Records › Accounting › Accounting periods.
To create a new accounting period, click the New button in the top right. If you need to change an existing accounting period, hover over its row and click the pencil icon.
A panel for configuring the accounting period appears on the right:
Abbreviation - your name for the accounting period
Valid from - the start of the accounting period (January 1 for an accounting year)
Valid to - the end of the accounting period (December 31 for an accounting year)
Year code for series - the code that will appear on documents and outputs
🚨 Accounting periods must follow one another without gaps, and once a subsequent period has been entered, users can no longer change the previous one.
For instructions on how to close an accounting period at the end of the year and open a new one, see the guide Closing a period.
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